Our 5 hour journey to Ayers Rock started at 6:50am. The Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock is Uluru and that is what I will use from this point forward. We traveled 500 kms from Alice Springs to Uluru on a straight and paved road through the red land, past the McDonald Range and the Waterhouse Range. The land here reminds me of Montana with some trees and lots of scrub bushes and native grasses. We traveled on the Stuart Highway named after the Scot who first explored the middle of the continent and was the first to travel from Adelaide to the top end. It took him 3 times and in the end he became so sick that he had to be carried back to Adelaide. Unfortunately he never regained his health and died 4 years later.
The kangaroos here are elusive. I have been told they are huge red guys and I kept my eyes peeled in the hopes of finally seeing one. My expectation was that they would be as plentiful as our deer. So far that does not seem to be the case. Everyone tells us that they come our at night and early in the morning. 5 hours and 300 kilometers and NO KANGAROOS!!
I am also fascinated by the road trains. These are tractor trailers that are 2 to 3 times longer than our tractor trailers. I've seen a few but have had difficulty getting a photo. I'll keep working on that!
As we traveled down Stuart Highway I noticed dirt roads that headed off in different directions and wished we had a 4 wheel drive vehicle and could just turn down one or two of them. About an hour into the drive the rand changed slightly and reminded me of red rock country near Lander, Wyoming or Sedona, AZ.
Once the center of the continent was explored people started settling there and they decided camels may be useful. They brought in the 2 hump camel along with some Afghan cameleers to drive them. The 2 hump camels did not seem to adapt to the environment so they tried the Dromedary camels in the 1860s.. They were very efficient and seemed perfect for the dry country. Since they were able to carry their own weight, they began to carry goods back and forth through the desert. Camel trains, at least 10 camels with their Afghan rider, would move building materials, furniture, foods, even pianos into the outback. The Ghan train replaced the camels and brought about the demise of the camel trains. The camels were set free and today there is an estimated 1.5 million camels running wild in Australia. Our first stop on the Stuart Highway was at the Camel Farm where you could have a camel burger or take a ride on a camel. I opted for the ride. Goldie didn’t spit at me once and was quite gentle. Getting up and down was interesting but I kept my eyes closed, leaned back and held on tight!
We passed by a small cattle station…only 3,000 square kilometers! This one had citrus trees and grew totally organic oranges. Seems there is a huge aquifer under the land here and they were fortunate to find good soil. Most of the soil is sand here and doesn’t seem to grow much. The largest station we traveled thru was 5,000 square kilometers. Although the ranchers do not own the land they do have a lifetime lease. I saw a few fence lines that run next to the road but for the most part the land is still open. Every cattle station has it’s own airstrip. Most cattle ranchers have planes or helicopters to check their cattle or to muster them during round up. The airstrips are also used by the Flying Doctor Service. These doctors provide medical care for the people spread all over the continent and they are housed at airports throughout Australia.
The three river crossings were interesting since there was no water in any of them. During wet season, the rivers flow once or twice a season. The Fink River goes all the way to the sea and is the oldest river on the continent.
We made a quick stop at Ebenezer’s Roadhouse and had a grand snack of a lamington cake. We heard about lamingtons on our first day in Australia and boy am I glad I waited so long to try one! Sponge cake is cut in squares, layered with a raspberry jam, covered with chocolate icing and pressed with fine coconut flakes. They are delightful! I will try to resist them and fortunately I only have 10 more days to resist the temptation! Ebenezer’s Roadhouse is on a rather small cattle station. The roadhouse is run by white people but the cattle station is run by an Aboriginal tribe. It was a quick stop; long enough for the lamington and a few pictures,
Our last stop was an overlook for a few pictures of Mt Connor. This land formation is often mistaken for Uluru but we were still an hour’s drive away. The Aboriginal name for Mt. Connor translates to Land of the Ice People. There are several salt water lakes in the area and these lakes around Mt Connor keep the temperatures a few degrees cooler than the rest of the interior. Weathering has formed Mt Connor leaving the rock formation standing and the rest of the earth eroded away.
We arrived at the Desert Palms which is one of the hotels in the Ayers Rock Resort. There are about 4 hotels here with restaurants, shops and a grocery store. We explored the resort in the afternoon and when the guys took a nap, I headed off to one of the lookouts for my first view of Uluru.
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